Brake leverage devices significantly improve the stopping power of 5-wheel in-line skates but are not available commercially. This web site describes how to make them at home at insignificant cost.
Heel brakes are a prerequisite for brake leverage devices. Therefore they are also discussed but to a lesser extent. Other factors affecting the effectiveness of heel brakes, applicable also to the more common 4-wheel in-line skates, are also discussed.
To discuss brake leverage devices please use the Usenet newsgroups rec.sport.skating.inline (English), rec.sport.skating.racing (English), and de.rec.sport.inlineskating (German). You can learn about Usenet at ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-hierarchy/news/announce/newusers/. I recommend that you start with Welcome_to_Usenet!
To instantly access the cited newsgroups through the Google Groups service click on rec.sport.skating.inline, rec.sport.skating.racing, or de.rec.sport.inlineskating.
Brake leverage devices were invented and first used around 1990 by 1985 Athens-to-Atlanta champion Don Ruiz of Chamblee, Georgia, U.S.A. He initially called them Puerto Rican Emergency Brakes. He considered commercializing them under the name Give me a brake! but decided not to.
Uwe Brockmann, uwe@pobox.com, http://www.panix.com/~uwe/brakelev/